


Darkness Among Us

by buggytwist



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game), dbd - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Canon scenes, Canon-Typical Violence, Dark Comedy, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Gore, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Horror, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Joey will protect Susie at ALL costs, Julie and Frank are manipulative, NSFW, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Physical Abuse, Pre-entity, Smut, Susie has a crush on Julie for a while, Teenage Drama, Violence, some body horror, some slurs are used - will be tagged at the start of each chapter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:15:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29738595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buggytwist/pseuds/buggytwist
Summary: In every person, there is a hint of evil. Sometimes, that evil can sprout and corrupt the mind and the others around it. In Ormond, everything remained the same - it felt like a factory filled with zombies. Kids would work their lives away at school just to stay in Ormond and not leave it due to jobs, repeating the process for their future children. Someone.. or someones wanted to change that - and they would do just about anything to prove that. Even if it meant getting messy and not knowing the future consequences.This is an interpretation of The Legion's lore from Dead by Daylight, using both canon story ( archives included ) and headcanons! Every chapter will include trigger warnings if needed, so PLEASE read those ahead of time. This fic heavily focuses on Julie/Frank and Joey/Susie; however there are implied moments of Julie/Susie but there is no romantic ending for them. Please enjoy!!
Relationships: Joey/Susie (Dead by Daylight), Julie/Frank Morrison, Julie/Susie (Dead by Daylight)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	Darkness Among Us

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that this chapter has implied self harm and a SMALL reference to pedophilia.
> 
> This is also my very first post on AO3 so please be wary as I learn how to post properly on here! 
> 
> There are grammatical errors in here without a doubt, I plan to return to them and fix them at some point in the future

The Cafeteria was always full of loud noises, but today seemed to be somewhat quieter. Julie couldn't exactly tell if it was because of the suspension given to the majority of her graduating class or because there wasn't much for people to talk about. No new music, no new tests, this week had been a bummer - slow, painful, and dull. Her fingers twisted themselves around her pencil, tapping it on her wide ruled notebook paper. 

"Shit." A male cursed, coughing hard into his shirt. 

"What?" Julie asked, her eyes looking over to him. He shook his head, coughing hard once more into his shirt with a loud obnoxious sniffle.

"Jesus, Joey. What the fuck is up with your throat? Suck too many dicks?" Julie snickered, earning a hard smack on her arm from him. 

"No, asswipe. Sue is sick, remember? She probably got me sick." Joey replied, grunting as he rubbed his face from exhaustion.

"If either of you make me cough and I miss my cheer meets, you're dead." Julie scowled, shaking her head in disapproval before sliding to the left - distancing herself from him. She could hear him mumble under his breath, wanting to question what he said, she simply gave him a look.

"I didn't say anything, Julie." Joey stood, grabbing his bag and pulled it over his shoulder.

"I gotta piss, probably gonna walk through campus until next period. See you in the parking lot, you're still taking me home, right?" Joey called to her since he had been walking away at a slow pace so she could hear.

"Of course. Burgers and fries?" Julie grinned, watching the male nod. She returned to her pencil, flipping it to its point. Mindlessly, the teenage girl dragged her pencil around - forming small shapes and figures, pausing occasionally to detail out circles into other objects.

"You an artist?" Someone questioned, making her look up immediately with a slight startled jump. Julie's eyes met with another boy, he looked to be her age - perhaps slightly older. His hair was shaved for the most part, a large flop of unkept blonde hair sat on his head.

"Hardly." Julie replied, pointing her pencil to in front of her. He took it as a sign for him to sit across from her. Julie's attention returned to her sketches, making him knit his brows before chuckling to himself. He posed subtly, causing her to look up and stifle her own laughter - her blonde hair falling into her eyes as she put her pencil down to look at him thoroughly.

"You a model?" She mocked, supporting her chin with her palm as she leaned against them table.

"Hardly." He mocked back.

Julie studied him for a few seconds, hiding it with her pushing her hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear.

"Frank." He interrupted her, before she could even say anything at least. "Morrison." He added, sighing slightly as he leaned backwards. His feet hooked themselves to the base of the table, allowing him to lean all the way back without fear of falling off of the bench and crashing to the ground. 

"You were looking like you were trying to remember who I was. .. You don't—"

"No.. no, I've heard of you. You're the one kid that shoved their coach off the benches, right? Got suspended for what.. two weeks or something?" 

Frank's grin turned prideful. "So .. you have heard of me. That's neat, didn't think Miss Julie Kostenko would ever have my name on her mind." He teased, but it caused her to pause in confusion. Frank rolled his eyes, "I'm not some stalker. You're mentioned everywhere in this fucking town, you really think I don't know who you are?" He explained, cracking his fingers one by one by pulling at them until they popped. Julie was baffled for a moment, then nodded slowly as she began to realize he was most likely telling the truth. Her parents were rather rich, her mother a lawyer and her father a bank owner. In Ormond, it seemed like money meant everything. But, maybe that was how every place was now. 

"I'm a little confused, didn't you graduate already? Or did they hold you back?" Julie questioned, her eyebrow raising as she tried to recall if she has seen him around the halls before. Much to her surprise, he shook his head.

"I dropped out shortly after I got suspended. If I can't fuckin' defend myself without getting in trouble, why stay?" He shrugged, his eyes falling down to her fingers. Frank noted her scared finger tips, how the cuticles around each finger were torn - her thumbs being the worst. "Besides.. you realize they aren't actually teaching you, right? The shit they show you is what they want you to know." He explained, his eyes continuing to study her hands. He was interested in their shape, how they seemed softened unlike his. This probably meant she never worked around the house, never did anything in the form of labor - spoiled. However, he was curious as to why her cuticles were destroyed the way they were.

".. so, what you're saying is that the education system is a scam?" Julie chuckled, tapping her fingers mindlessly on the pages. "Just basically one of those zombie movies? Where the ending is that it was the government all along?" She asked. 

Frank laughed, amused by how she put the two together. An odd comparison, especially from someone who looked like her.

"Uh.. yeah. Basically." He nodded, his eyes now going to her own.

Julie was focused on the people behind him, they were mumbling to one another - shooting glances between her and Frank. It caused her to swallow hard, she could tell people were talking .. or it at least felt like that. Frank turned his head, following her eyes with confusion. He watched people talk, though he didn't seem to pick up on the social cues that Julie did. Instead, he turned back to Julie who was currently writing something down on her notepad. His eyebrow raised, trying to peer over her hands to get a glimpse of what she was doing, but much to his surprise - she ripped the paper and handed it to him. His eyes fell to the handwriting, thankful that she didn't write in cursive. He couldn't read that well in the first place, his dyslexia mixed with wavy writing usually didn't end well. "Really?" He asked, a smiling forming - but it fell once he realized she was getting up from the bench she was on.

"Yeah. .. see you there?" Julie awkwardly asked, swinging her bag around her shoulder while tucking her pencil behind her ear and hugging her note pad under her arm. Frank didn't have much time to reply, Julie had taken off with a cluster of other teenage girls - relatively looking the same as her. Blonde, beautiful, and well shaped. He made notes of every girl, but made a particular note that Julie was the tallest - she looked awkward around them. A good three inches on a group made one stand out like a sore thumb. 

Frank looked back down to the paper, sighing contently. He managed to get Julie's number and her address - under it containing the words 'PARTY ON SATURDAY. 6:30 PM.' In the past, Frank wasn't invited to many parties - let alone, get a girl's number within the first hour of knowing her. Perhaps it was his old lack of hygiene that made girls flee or his inability to understand social cues. He didn't know. However, what he did know was that Julie was someone who was different. His hands folded the paper in half twice, tucking it into his pocket before he began to leave the cafeteria. His hands reached to his shoulders, flipping his hood up so it hugged his head. He avoided eye contact with bystanders, striding across the concrete pavements that connected buildings together. His feet carried him across the courtyard, turning on his heel and swept his way to the back of one of the main buildings. He shoved his sleeves up on his varsity jacket, grabbing into the chain link fence that poorly protected the school's boundaries. With a grunt, the young adult pulled himself up and pushed the rubber toe of his shoe into the small links in the fence - climbing up it and hopping over the top of the fence with a thud on the other side. School was useless to him as were adults, ever since he could remember - adults never seemed to understand his motivations for anything. Sure, he had violent tendencies and caused one of his foster siblings to end up with a broken nose that required surgery to fix - but who didn't do that at the age of eleven? Frank glanced back at the dream sucking buildings, flicking his tongue at the thought of Julie being turned into one of the many lambs that existed in Ormond. He needed to stop that process somehow, one way or another. There was something that girl was hiding, whether she knew her potential or not — Frank felt something dark within her. The boy pushed his hand into his back pocket, reaching for a carton of cigarettes that were half empty. He fumbled for his lighter, grabbing it and lighting a bud while placing it to his lips. 

Smoke escaped his nostrils as he walked the empty streets of the neighborhood, his eyes studying the houses he passed. He could imagine who lived where, just judging on personality. In the distance, he could see a mansion that sat in the very end of the loop of the neighborhood. It didn't take a genius to know it belonged to the Kostenkos. A loud blaring horn crashed his studying, making his head snap toward the noise. His foster father, Clive.

✧･ﾟ: *

The bell rang throughout the buildings, Julie rolled her shoulders back - letting the crack in sync along with her neck as she twisted it to the right. She left her final period's classroom, making her way past people by shoulder shoving them to force them out of her way. Occasionally, she would get an offended sigh or ignorant insult - but she remained focused on her task which was to get the fuck out of that building. Once she made her way to her car, she noticed Joey who was sitting on the trunk waiting for her patiently.

"How long have you been here?" She questioned, opening the car door and unlocking the passenger side for him.

"I snuck out twenty minutes early. Sub. You'd be surprised on how easy it is to make someone think you're coming back after you say you're going to piss." Joey snickered, grabbing the seat belt and putting it around him as he helped Julie put her bag and his into the back row of seats.

"You talk to Sue yet? She feeling better?" She frowned, turning her head as she reversed the vehicle and pulled out of the parking spot.

"Yeah, gave a call while I waited. She said she's doing better, though she sounded one cough away from hacking up her lung. Guess that's what happens with asthma." He replied, shrugging as he dug in his pocket for a lighter.

"Glove box, before you ask." Julie interrupted him. He nodded, opening the compartment and pulling out a box of cigarettes, pulling out two for them. He lit one, handing it off to her while he lit his own and puffed into the air slowly. 

"She stop puking her guts out?"

"She said she hasn't puked since last afternoon so.. yeah, guessing that's gone. Why?"

"We might as well make sure she has something in her. Her parents—"

"I know, Jules."

"Yeah."

They stayed silent, thinking of what to say to one another. Each of them had trouble at home, however Julie was fortunate to not have to really worry about anything. Susie and Joey were a different story. Susie was currently bouncing between two houses, and her dad wasn't always around mentally to take care of her. There had been several nights where the two had to sneak to her house and take her to Julie's for safety. 

"I'm worried about her, Joe." Julie finally mumbled, blowing smoke from her nostrils as he grunted in agreement.

"Yeah. Me too, J. But she's also our Susie, she's tougher than everyone says. You remember when she nearly fought that raccoon one night because it took your leftovers?" He mused, getting a hard snort from Julie.

"Phf— yeah! She was so angry that it grabbed it from the porch. Guess it was starving, too." She sighed, flicking her cigarette out of the window and to the road as she began to drive down a main street.

"What about you, though? What's going on, you haven't said much about home in a few days." 

Joey frowned at the question he was asked, not being a fan of talking about personal life.

"Ah, don't worry. It's same old shit, just gotta find a job soon to help Mom and Sis. Dad lost his job, pretty sure they're splitting. Judging on the yelling, at least." He shrugged, looking out the window.

Julie's posture changed, feeling a small amount of guilt for wanting to complain what was happening to her. "I'm sorry." She said. It was all she could think of.

"Don't be. I love you and all, but I don't want you to feel bad for me. I can handle it." He reassured, his hand going to her shoulder and rubbed it gently. 

"I don't understand why you just don't let me give you something. I mean, come on. Your sister is _sick_ for fucks sake."

"This again? Dude, I told you. If I— _we_ need money, I know you'd be there in a heartbeat. But we don't need it."

"Yet."

His jaw clenched, his heart skipping a few beats. The word was so cold, but truthful at the same time. He shook his head as he tried to ignore the subtle concerning look that Julie was giving him. They sat in silence for a minute, the humming of the car's engine and tires hitting the road sounding louder than usual. It made them both uncomfortable. 

"And you?" Joey finally asked. 

"It's fine. You guys have worse shit, you don't need to hear me bitch."

"Julie, it's not a competition on who has it worse."

"It's not anything important, really. It's the same shit as always." 

"That explains the wrists." 

Julie slammed on the break, mostly to stop at the light that switched to red and from the slight shock of what Joey said.

"I saw them at lunch. I didn't want to make a deal out of it then, you need to keep them clean. You keepin' them clean?" He quizzed, his eyes lingering to her wrists as she fiddled with her jacket's sleeves to pull them to her palms.

"Yeah." Julie mumbled, her cheeks crimson with embarrassment.

"I'm always a call away, Jul." He offered, concern in his tone.

"A call doesn't make me stop, dude. I'm just—" She chewed her lip, thinking of her words as she began to drive again and watch the road.

"I'll call you next time. Promise." Julie said quietly, flicking the turn signal on to the left and merged over to a turning lane to get into a drive thru. 

"What do you wanna get?" She asked, leaning back for Joey to see the full menu. He pulled himself forward, his hand lingering near her thigh which caused her to flick his wrist with a grunt.

"Sorry." He mumbled, then cleared his throat. "Get me the double cheeseburger, extra pickle and no mustard." He instructed and smirked watching Julie's face contort in disgust.

"I am _not_ saying extra pickles. Are you demented?" She whined, leaning out the car window and reluctantly repeating what he had asked - along with her own and one for Susie. 

Once they got their food, Julie began to make their way toward Susie's house. It was exactly one street behind her own home, she could easily climb over a fence and practically be in Susie's backyard.

"I'll carry the food, you get her?" Julie raised her eyebrow to him, approaching the driveway after about ten minutes of driving.

"Are we eating at her tree?" He asked, watching the slightly run down one story home come into full view as they pulled into the driveway.

"Yeah, it's nice out. Probably the last say we will have little snow until who knows when?" Julie chuckled silently as she parked her car and hopped out.

Joey nodded, walking to the front door and knocked with his knuckles twice while Julie made her way to the backyard. Quickly, the front door opened and Susie's pink hair came into view.

"Joey? What're you doing here?" Susie coughed into her sleeve, closing the door behind her as she stepped outside.

"Julie and I got you some lunch, after I told her you weren't puking I figured you could use some food." He explained, wanting to place his hand on her back but refrained from it as Susie sprinted off toward Julie under the large tree that was bare and lacked any leaves.

"Hey." Julie soothed, pulling out a container of chicken tenders for the pinkette and pushed it toward her. A gleeful sound escaped the younger of the three, nearly ripping it open as she began to eat. 

"Damn, We aren't gonna take it from you!" Julie cracked, unwrapping her own burger while handing Joey his.

"How was school? Did Mr. Parkington have a pop quiz like he does every time I'm gone?" Susie sniffled, deciding to keep her distance from the two by sitting further back.

"He was gone actually, we had a sub." Joey chimed, a picking dangling from his lips.

Julie gagged at the smell and sight, "You gonna be okay for this weekend? The party is Saturday." She mumbled, avoiding Joey and his meal by making eye contact with Susie.

".. well, if my fever stays broken - I can go. If it comes back tonight I don't think I will, I don't wanna get others sick. Especially you, you have your cheer competition soon. You'd be mad if you missed practice!" Susie stuffed her mouth with fries, causing Julie to become a little irritated by hearing someone chew.

"Today is Thursday, we don't have school tomorrow so you better get less sick by Saturday." She scorned, earning a look from Joey.

"Woah— okay. Take it down a notch, she's sick. She can't help what her body does. You never care if she misses a party, why care now?" Joey defended the younger one, wanting to avoid as much drama between the three as possible.

"Because this one is going to be _big_." Julie explained.

"You say that every time, and every time it gets bigger. What if cops get involved, man? I don't know about you, but, cops don't exactly find a black kid with two chicks who shouldn't be partying without parents very 'innocent'!" Joey barked, his nostrils flaring as he grew concerned over Julie and her growing need for attention. He figured it was from her lack of attention at home, but even when they grew up together - he knew she got plenty of attention, or so he believed. He wasn't sure what attention she wanted out of people, he just knew if she didn't have it - she would have a meltdown and lose her cool. Susie's lower lip formed into a pout, making him sigh heavily into the air. Julie and him had been through a lot, they were used to disappointing one another. It helped that Julie was easily disappointed or annoyed by Joey's 'goodie' motto he ran with currently. However, when it came to Susie - he couldn't let her do things alone. He felt this overwhelming desire to protect her. Protect her from her family, from society, from Julie. 

Sure, he loved Julie - but he also knew what kind of mind she had. Susie was easy to manipulate and turn into a walking puppet, and Julie currently had her wrapped around her finger so tight - Joey was concerned what would happen if the two separated. "Alright. Fine, but if the cops come - I'm booking it and you better not let them know I was there. Mom has enough to worry about." He agreed, watching Susie smile with relief. 

Julie looked at her food, pushing it to the side for the two to take as she leaned against the half melted snow and stared blankly at the tree.

"What's wrong, Julie?" Susie mumbled through her chicken tender.

"Wait— I know that look! That's the 'boy' look! You met a boy, didn't you?!" She taunted, sitting up on her knees like a child.

"Jesus— not this shit again." Joey grumbled.

"You have this thing, you know, called volume? I can hear you." Julie warned, squinting at him in a playful yet threatening manner.

"Who is he? Do I know him?" Susie interrogated, crawling on her hands and knees to look down at Julie and block her vision of the sky.

"I wouldn't say so, but you have heard of him." Julie answered, humming to herself as she stroked her point fingers with her thumbs to soothe her mind.

"Is it Daniel from our Art Class? Wait.. I already know him, dangit. What about — oh! Yeah, Tony? The Tony that's a senior that got held back twice and then half way through his third time of senior year he went poof?! I haven't met him but apparently he's great with kids! .. I wonder why they said he can't be part of the Daycare System we have." Susie rambled, talking a lot as she usually did.

Both Joey and Julie made immediate eye contact, raising their eyebrows in unison to their innocent minded friend.

".. uh, no. No.. and I really think that you should stay far _far_ away from Tony." Julie awkwardly sat up, pulling snow out of her hair and standing up.

"I'm going to go do some research!" She said confidently, hands on her hips. "You? Doing homework? You hit your head when I left, Kosty?" The male mused, leaning back on his hand and tossing his trash into the large bag that held everything in the first place.

"No. I didn't, I just— have you realized everything is the same here? Everyone does the same thing."

"Uh.. no?"

"Not work wise, but thought wise. They all work work work, nothing else. You know why?"

".. because they have jobs?"

"Because of school, dumbass!"

Joey cackled into the air, not believing in her for a moment.

"Jesus— how much did you fucking smoke? You a conspiracy theorist now? The fuck does school have to do with anything in that?" He argued, looking over at Susie who now was fiddling with her fingers and pulling the skin around her cuticles.

"Hey, knock that off." He whispered, lightly tapping his hand on her. "You don't want that to get infected, Sue. C'mon, have this." Joey continued, only half listening to Julie's new spiel that sounded similar to the one she heard earlier from the boy. 

He tossed over a Rubix cube to her, a smaller one that could fit in ones pocket. "I play around with this when I'm anxious— Ow!" He winced, feeling a rock smack him on the back of the head.

"Can you two listen?!" Julie whined, stomping her foot into the ground.

"S—sorry, Julie. I was listening. Do you want to watch a zombie movie..? Is that what you're getting at?" Susie asked, her hands moving around the cube she was handed.

A small relief came over her when she felt Joey move closer, glancing at him with a half smile - he gave the look back. It was a silent Thank You and Welcome. 

"No! I'm talking about how we're all just stupid sheep waiting to go to the slaughter house with school!" Julie announced, clenching her fist and pumping it into the air like she was claiming something marvelous and not at all insane sounding.

"Lambs to the slaughter. That's the phrase. Secondly, we kinda /do/ need school - as much as I hate it and want it to rot." Joey tried to begin, silencing himself as he witnessed Susie lean forward to hear Julie's ramble. 

Oh no.

".. does this mean learning about Algebra is bullshit?" Susie asked with a light grin, feeling hopeful at the answer.

"Duh! It's /been/ bullshit since day one, Susie!" Julie replied, squatting down to meet her at eye level.

".. we're gonna make sure we don't fall into that hellhole. You and me. Joey can stay stuck in it if he wants." She whispered, eye contact being strong. Joey grunted loudly, then remained silent as Susie nodded. He felt like he should have said something, but instead he felt his mouth move without any thought.

"I want in this." He spoke. "But, I'm going to need more evidence for whatever the fuck you're talking about - not just some random speech." He added, earning a nod from Julie and a stand.

"I'm gonna get my research done. I promise. Saturday night, you two sleep over and we talk more. Got it?" She replied, not sounding like she was offering the night. She was more telling them what to do, like always.

"Okay!" Susie grinned, chipper as ever to spend the night at Julie's house - then pouted, Julie had begun to head to her car.

"See you two Saturday. Be at my place at Six. Party starts 30 minutes after." She ordered out, waving her hand to them with her back turned - entering her car and eventually driving off. 

"You feeling better with that cube?" Joey softly spoke, looking down at her fingers to check for blood.

"Yeah. You can have it back." Susie smiled, trying to hand it back to him but had the item pushed back into her hands.

"You need it, I want you to stop picking those nails of yours — got it?" He replied, then sighed to himself. If he could, he would tell Julie to fuck off with this new thing she was on. Every other week she had some crazy idea that she would twist Susie into, similar to last week and Julie having the passion for diet bars. That was a conversation that he didn't want to remember. It ended with Julie having a mental breakdown over her weight and Susie feeling guilty for not agreeing with Julie.

"Yeah. Do you think Julie knows what she's talking about?" She asked, looking at the toy and began to rotate the rows to match the colors.

".. if I'm honest, this may be the smartest thing Jules has said to us. But, that's reaching. I don't know where the fuck that came from, she loves school to an extent. I did see some dude hop over the fencing a little after I left her at lunch. I really fucking hope this isn't what I think it is." Joey explained, keeping his eyes on Susie.

"What do you think it is?" Susie asked, now looking up at him with concern. "Do you think she has a boyfriend?" She sounded anxious - for what, Joey didn't know. Whenever Julie talked about boys, Susie seemed to get irritated or anxious; sometimes sad.

"I dunno, maybe. If she does, he doesn't go to our school if that's the case and he looked older than her. Maybe a year. So he _definitely_ isn't part of our class." He clarified.

"If Julie gets another boyfriend, do you think she will make us be friends with him? Last time we tried being friends with one, it didn't end well." Susie mumbled, making Joey chuckle under his breath.

"Yeah, it didn't end well because he got caught cheating when you and I were getting her some food when she had the flu back in December of last year." He seemed to have pride in his tone.

"And then you punched him in the face!" Susie cheered.

"Right smack in the nose!" Joey played, forming a fist and playfully tapping Susie on her nose. The two giggled in unison. Joey hesitated to say something, he always wanted to say more than he did. Not just around Julie, but to Susie specifically. He couldn't tell if he wanted her romantically, or just saw her as a good friend. It confused him. There were days where she would be excited over something and watching her light up like sparklers was like a treasured moment to him.

"If I had a — .. boyfriend that cheated on me, would you do the same?" Susie asked. The question caught him off guard, the obvious answer was yes. Why would she ask that?

"I'd do way more than a punch to the nose. Anyone who cheats on you deserves a good dagger to the heart." He shrugged, then looked to see Susie's face show concern and slight fear. "It was a joke. I wouldn't go that far, but yeah. Nose and maybe even a broken leg if I'm feeling fancy." He stood to his feet, then paused. "Ah, motherfucker!" He cursed, putting his hands in his pockets.

"What?" Susie stood with him.

"Julie left me! She was my ride home!" Joey groaned, picking up their trash and stuffing it into one big bag to carry and throw out at his house.

"Call me if something happens, okay? You remember my house number?" 

She nodded, then looked back up at him - wrapping her arms around his chest for quick yet tight hug. 

"Thanks for the cube." She said vocally this time. 

"Anytime, Sue. You just keep playing with it if you get that anxious again." 

Another nod, and she pulled from him. Hesitantly, he left her side and began to walk toward the street - leaving Susie alone in her backyard until she walked back into her own home. All she had to do was wait until Saturday, and she would be able to hear more about Julie - and maybe, _maybe_ she could get to see who that mysterious boy that Joey talked about. 

She could only hope.


End file.
